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Home > Blogs > The Cycle
The Cycle

Western Union says ‘yes!’ to new Web site

Posted February 27, 2009

Earlier this week, I had the chance to attend the launch party for Western Union’s new yes! campaign. Held at Vanderbilt Hall in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, the event featured photographs and artwork from the campaign, and photographer Steve McCurry and street artist Chase were in attendance. Western Union announced the campaign at the beginning of February, but recently introduced its Web site, where visitors can submit their “yes!” stories of success.

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Filed under: CSR, Events, Multicultural, Social Media, Web sites

Tags:Western Union

Microsoft calls social media review ‘an exercise’

Posted February 27, 2009

PRWeek UK has reported that Microsoft is rethinking its global media strategy, as a way to improve its consumer communications. According to the piece, the tech giant has called in its three global agencies – Weber Shandwick, Edelman, and Waggener Edstrom – to present their social media credentials.

In a statement provided to me, Microsoft called this “an exercise to better understand the digital and social marketing capabilities of a number of our marketing and communications agencies.” The company asserts,“This is something we regularly do and this exercise is not specific to PR. We don’t envisage significant change in either our strategy or our agencies of record”.

Stay tuned for more.

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Filed under: Agency-client relationship, Social Media, Technology

Tags:Edelman, Microsoft, Waggener Edstrom, Weber Shandwick

Posted February 27, 2009

Facebook is taking the of its critics and allowing users to chime in on the way the site is governed. In a blog entry , CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook is going to practice what it preaches on transparency. As a first step, Zuckerberg is inviting user feedback on two documents: , which defines users’ rights and will act as a guiding framework on any policy it considers or discards; and , which will replace its existing Terms of Use. Both groups have about 4,000 members.

“With both documents, we tried hard to simplify the language so you have a clear understanding of how Facebook will be run,” Zuckerberg writes. “We’ve created separate groups for each document so you can read them and provide comments and feedback.”

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Filed under: Corporate Communications, Corporate Reputation, Crisis Communications, Social Media

Tags:, Mark Zuckerberg

Bartz uses Yahoo blog to explain management changes

Posted February 26, 2009

Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s CEO since January, reached out to consumers via the company blog today, shortly after it disclosed that Blake Jorgensen, CFO, will exit as soon as his replacement is found.

“Today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo a lot faster on its feet,” she blogged. “For us working at Yahoo, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer.”

More to come…

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Filed under: Blogs, Corporate Communications, Financial/IR, Technology

Tags:Blake Jorgensen, Carol Bartz, Yahoo

Scripps to close ‘Rocky Mountain News’ after February 27 edition

Posted February 26, 2009

EW Scripps executives told Rocky Mountain News employees in person today that the company is closing the newspaper, which had been in print since 1859 and in tabloid format since 1942. The four-time Pulitzer Prize winner publishes its last issue on February 27.

Scripps spokeswoman Lee Rose told PRWeek that Scripps officials were conducting a press conference on February 26. The company has not hired an agency for the announcement, she said.

Hearst said this week that The San Francisco Chronicle if its unions do not make concessions.

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Tags:EW Scripps, Lee Rose, Pulitzer Prize, Rocky Mountain News, The San Francisco Chronicle

Yahoo departure fuels more speculation

Posted February 24, 2009

The head of Yahoo’s news and information division, Neeraj Khemlani, has jumped ship from the troubled company to Hearst Corp. The move has fueled even more speculation that Yahoo’s rumored reorganization could happen as early as tomorrow.  According to a Hearst , Khemlani will be VP and special assistant to the CEO and be “responsible for promoting and coordinating digital content transformation across the company.” Stay tuned for more on Yahoo’s restructuring.

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Filed under: Crisis Communications, Journalism 2.0, Technology

Tags:Hearst Corp., Neeraj Khemlani, Yahoo

Ratings up for Oscars

Posted February 24, 2009

Sunday’s Academy Awards pulled in more viewers than last year, according to Nielsen. The show, which saw Slumdog Millionaire take home Best Picture, averaged 36.3 million viewers, up from 32 million last year. Looks like , including Twilight’s Robert Pattinson, got the job done.

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Tags:Academy Awards, Robert Pattinson, Slumdog Millionaire, Twilight

SAG and AMPTP: Still going

Posted February 23, 2009

After several days of talks last week, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) offered the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) a “Last, Best, and Final Offer,” in their contract negotiations. Over the weekend, SAG’s National Board of Directors rejected the offer 73% to 27%. The sticking point seems to be the length of the contract, three years, making SAG one year behind other unions when it comes to contract negotiations. SAG thinks this would weaken its bargaining clout.

SAG said in its statement:

What management presented as a compromise is, in fact, an attempt to separate Screen Actors Guild from other industry unions. By attempting to extend our contract expiration one year beyond the other entertainment unions, the AMPTP intends to deleverage our bargaining position from this point forward.

AMPTP responded:

The Producers have always sought a full three-year deal with SAG, just as we negotiated with all the other Unions and Guilds, and have offered SAG a way to achieve an earlier expiration date without contributing to further labor uncertainty.  We simply cannot offer SAG a better deal than the rest of the industry achieved under far better economic conditions than those now confronting our industry.

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Filed under: 1

Tags:Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Screen Actors Guild

NYC mayor hopes to lure creatives to bolster financial sector

Posted February 23, 2009

From job training to start-up money for entrepreneurs, New York’s mayor is looking to keep the city vibrant and poised for a rebound, despite the that Washington is the new financial heart of the country.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced a multifaceted effort last week to “help support New York City’s financial services sector and grow as a global center for business innovation and entrepreneurship,” according to the city’s Economic Development Corp. In his speech, Bloomberg said:

We are taking aggressive steps to put the City in the best position to capture growth, and we’re doing it by promoting one thing more than any other: innovation. Read more »

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Tags:Mayor Bloomberg, New York

Tropicana drops package redesign due to consumer complaints

Posted February 23, 2009

PepsiCo is scrapping a redesign of its Tropicana packaging because of consumer complaints, the company The New York Times.

The redesign, which kicked off in January, also included a new advertising campaign, which will continue as planned “although future elements of the campaign” will be updated.

The brand plans to contact the consumers who called or wrote to the company about the changes to explain what Tropicana is doing, going forward.

Other companies, like and Johnson & Johnson, have faced situations where consumer complaints, some fueled by the visibility that social media provides, have caused companies to make immediate changes, says the Times.

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Filed under: Advertising, Consumer, Food and Beverage, Social Media

Tags:, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, Tropicana

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For both journalists and communicators, the news cycle never ends. At The Cycle, PRWeek’s editorial team offers commentary and viewpoints on how the latest marketing, business, political, and cultural news impact the PR industry.

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